Our Parkinson ancestors are from the largely rural English county of Huntingdonshire (now in Cambridgeshire). We covered the Parkinson family once before here (click on link).

James Parkinson was the second son and fourth child of Charles and Hepzibah Newton Parkinson.

Elizabeth (called Betsy) Chattle was the daughter of James and Sarah Andrews Chattle.

James and Betsy married in 1827 in Ramsey, Huntingdonshire.

They had four children: William, Thomas (our ancestor), Sarah, and Eliza.

James was a farm laborer and Betsy was a house servant and both were members of the Church of England when they and their children (ages 11 to 21) decided to seek a better life in Australia. They left James’ widowed mother Hephzibah in Manchester, and Betsy’s widowed father James, living with another daughter, Mary Quemby. They knew no one in Australia, and were in good health.

They sailed on the barque St Vincent around Cape Horn, Africa, then all the way to eastern Australia, arriving there in 1849, where they settled in Brookfield, Hunter River, New South Wales. Brookfield is 125 miles north from Sydney along the east coast of Australia, and is about 20 miles inland. It is a farming area. Much of the travel was done by river.

Not long after arriving, Thomas’ younger sister Sarah was married to a former convict or soldier named Rodwell. The marriage did not last long but resulted in two children who were later adopted by her second husband.

A number of families also settled in the Hunter River District included the Stapleys and Bryants.

In 1853 Thomas and his sister Sarah joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They were very active in the Williams River Branch of the church. Other families from the area joining the church at this time included the Stapleys and Bryants, also ancestors and relatives of ours. The story of this new branch of the church and several mentions of all three families are found in the diary of Elder William Hyde. James and Betsy did not join the church.

Thomas and Sarah and her two children left for Utah in 1854. When they reached America, Thomas married Mary Ann Bryant, and Sarah married Charles Stapley, Jr. (Sarah’s sixth child, Emma Ellen Stapley was Henry Martin Tanner’s second wife.)

About this same time, the Parkinson’s daughter Eliza married and returned with her husband to England. James and Betsy lived near or with their remaining son, William and his family.

The family has copies of three letters written by Betsy to her children in America. She talks about farming, their health, and family matters. Here is the final page of one of her letters.James died in 1870 in New South Wales and Betsy probably two years later.

* * *

Sarah’s neighbor in Toquerville, John Steele, recorded this genealogical information when he left on his mission to England.

“Mrs. Sarah Stapley Toquerville wants me to look after her friends in England. Her maiden name was Sarah Parkinson born Cambridgeshire, England, daughter of James and Betty Parkinson whose maiden name was Betsey Chattle. She had Thomas, George, Mary, Susan, Mariah, her brothers in Fassett North Lincolnshire, England. Mariah married Broadbent. Continued on next page Newton Parkinson. John Parkinson, Thomas and Sarah Parkinson, Brothers and sisters of James Parkinson whose mothers maiden name was Newton, residing in 1847 in Manchester, Cambridgeshire, England. (Wanda Steele Cox, ed., Journal of John Steele and Mahonri Moriancumer Steele. Cedar City: 1967, p. 15. Quoted in Kerry Bate, Stapley Family. Manuscript: 1991.)

Sources:

I have found some disagreement on dates and places and have not seen any good documentation yet for either set of data.

Bate, Kerry. Stapley Family. Manuscript: 1991

Parkinson, Diane and John Parkinson. James Parkinson of Ramsey: His Roots and Branches England—Australia—America. Austin, Texas: The James Parkinson Family Association, 1987.

Picture of Hunter River copyright free from Flikr. Letter from Parkinson book.

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It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look on the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect on the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. —Gordon B. Hinckley...